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Suwannaphum fire, January 2026 สุวรรณภูมิ · Suwannaphum

Out · last detection 6 Feb 2026, 05:45 UTC

The fire started on 14 January 2026 in Suwannaphum, Thailand, and satellites saw it burning for 24 days. Copernicus’s global GWIS system rebuilt a burnt perimeter of 2,029 hectares from heat detections, spread across a single municipality.

Number 300 in Thailand in 2026, of 688.

GWIS near-real-time perimeter, from the layer that changed in October 2025: this fire is not compared with fires from earlier years, because since then the GWIS layer gives more and larger perimeters.

The power measured by the satellite is low (27.1 MW in the strongest hotspot), more typical of grass or stubble burning, or a slow surface fire, than of a large crown fire.

Burnt area
2,029ha
GWIS perimeter (Copernicus)
Duration
24days
14 Jan 2026 – 6 Feb 2026
Municipalities hit
1
districts
Started on
14 Jan
2026
Heat detections
51
in a single hotspot: 27 MW
Danger at start
22
High · FWI index
Average daily power
21MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 14 Jan6 Feb
6 Feb 2026

How it evolved, day by day

14 Jan 2026 · 7 MW · 1 16 Jan 2026 · 16 MW · 1 17 Jan 2026 · 2 MW · 1 18 Jan 2026 · 2 MW · 1 21 Jan 2026 · 28 MW · 6 22 Jan 2026 · 1 MW · 1 23 Jan 2026 · 21 MW · 4 25 Jan 2026 · 7 MW · 1 27 Jan 2026 · 173 MW · 18 28 Jan 2026 · 16 MW · 1 29 Jan 2026 · 3 MW · 1 30 Jan 2026 · 15 MW · 4 31 Jan 2026 · 21 MW · 6 1 Feb 2026 · 23 MW · 3 4 Feb 2026 · 3 MW · 1 6 Feb 2026 · 2 MW · 1
14 Jan 21 Jan 27 Jan 31 Jan

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

36°high
46km/h · peak gust
31%lowest humidity

It had gone 34 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started.

This area had burned before

90% of the perimeter overlaps earlier fires recorded since 2016: 352 ha in 2016, 505 ha in 2017, 609 ha in 2018, 1,608 ha in 2019, 1,201 ha in 2020, 739 ha in 2021, 464 ha in 2022, 252 ha in 2023, 69 ha in 2024, 199 ha in 2025. Part of it burned more than once, so the yearly figures add up to more than the 1,835 ha that had burned before.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 1.3% of the area of London (20 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each town

  1. Suwannaphum สุวรรณภูมิ where it started
    2,040 ha reached on 14 Jan
    2.4 %

Burnt area inside each municipality, from crossing the GWIS perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

People and buildings inside the perimeter

GHSL 2025
Built-up area1.3 ha
Residents≈ 50

Inside the perimeter there were about 1.3 hectares of built-up land and about 50 residents (GHSL 2025, satellite-based estimate).

This is an estimate on 100 m cells, made from satellite imagery and census data: it does not mean that homes burned or that anyone was harmed. The perimeter also contains land that never burned. The GHSL 2025 epoch is a projection made from 2020 and earlier data.

Source: Global Human Settlement Layer (GHS-BUILT-S and GHS-POP R2023A), European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC), © European Union, CC BY 4.0. Sum inside the perimeter computed by WorldFires. human-settlement.emergency.copernicus.eu

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
14 Jan 30.4 °C 40 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
15 Jan 31.9 °C 39 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
16 Jan 32.7 °C 40 % 18 km/h 0.0 mm Moderate 21
17 Jan 33.4 °C 37 % 16 km/h 0.0 mm High 22
18 Jan 32.5 °C 40 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
19 Jan 33.0 °C 35 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
20 Jan 32.9 °C 33 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 23
21 Jan 31.9 °C 34 % 33 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
22 Jan 30.8 °C 34 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
23 Jan 30.0 °C 40 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
24 Jan 29.9 °C 39 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
25 Jan 30.5 °C 38 % 23 km/h 0.0 mm High 27
26 Jan 31.2 °C 35 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 31
27 Jan 31.3 °C 33 % 31 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
28 Jan 30.7 °C 38 % 38 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 39
29 Jan 31.4 °C 38 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
30 Jan 32.7 °C 33 % 20 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
31 Jan 32.4 °C 31 % 34 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
1 Feb 30.8 °C 39 % 41 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 42
2 Feb 30.5 °C 42 % 46 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 47
3 Feb 31.7 °C 40 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm Very high 38
4 Feb 32.5 °C 37 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
5 Feb 34.7 °C 34 % 19 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
6 Feb 35.5 °C 33 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 33
7 Feb after 35.1 °C 40 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 30
8 Feb after 33.0 °C 39 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 38
9 Feb after 32.5 °C 41 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
10 Feb after 33.2 °C 41 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
11 Feb after 33.8 °C 38 % 27 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
12 Feb after 34.4 °C 36 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
13 Feb after 35.2 °C 33 % 24 km/h 0.0 mm High 28
14 Feb after 35.5 °C 29 % 25 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
15 Feb after 35.7 °C 31 % 22 km/h 0.0 mm High 32
16 Feb after 35.9 °C 35 % 26 km/h 0.0 mm High 32

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 7 Jan 2026
After · 13 Feb 2026

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 19 January 2026 the air beside the fire reached 31 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 26: 1.7 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak31 µg/m³
Days over the guideline4 days
PM1032 µg/m³
Optical depth0.65
19 Jan23 Jan27 Jan31 Jan
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 51Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Thailand

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Suwannaphum fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 14 January 2026 to 6 February 2026 (24 days). The perimeter dates it from 21 January 2026 to 31 January 2026.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter GWIS (Copernicus) rebuilt from heat detections is 2,029 hectares (20.3 km²). It is an estimate: official national figures may differ.
Which municipalities burned?
The fire only entered Suwannaphum (2,040 ha, 2.4 %).
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 35.5 °C, humidity dropped to 31 % and gusts hit 46 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 47, class Very high.
Where does this data come from?
From the GWIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Thailand (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Emergency number: 199 · 191 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page · 2 Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.
  1. Last day with fire: 31 January 2026 → 6 February 2026.
  2. Start date: 21 January 2026 → 14 January 2026.

RSS Changes to this page With cross-checks and a citable version

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 199 · 191.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: GWIS (Copernicus), rebuilt from heat detections rather than mapped on imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 21 January 2026 to 31 January 2026. 51 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • We have not matched this page with any official record.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.
  • Built-up area and population come from the JRC Global Human Settlement Layer (epoch 2025, 100 m cells), summed inside the perimeter: an estimate of what was there, not a damage count.

How we build fire pages: methodology

Where this data comes from

The perimeter comes from the Copernicus Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS), which rebuilds it from MODIS and VIIRS heat detections and publishes it under CC BY 4.0. It is not measured on imagery as in Europe, so it is an estimate. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Municipal boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM2 (Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Intergovernmental Organisations (CC BY 3.0 IGO)). The area per municipality is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ from each country’s official figure.